Concern Over Proposed Power Lines at Jamestown

Aug. 11, 2015

To the Editor:

“Unearthing Jamestown’s Leaders, and a Mystery” (news article, July 29) noted that the human remains recently found by researchers at the original site of colonial Jamestown, Va., include four men who were “long thought lost to history.”

While celebrating this significant discovery of the English founders of America, we remain concerned that a proposal by the Dominion Virginia Power company to construct a series of power lines across the James River at Jamestown would significantly harm the site and shatter decades of careful preservation work that helped pave the way for this archaeological breakthrough.

Specifically, Dominion is seeking approval to construct 17 towers — some as tall as 295 feet — across the James River near Jamestown. Not only would these imposing towers and high-voltage transmission lines permanently alter the character of one of America’s foundational historic places, but they would also undo decades of thoughtful preservation efforts at Jamestown and along the James River by the National Park Service, preservation organizations and generations of everyday Americans who have visited the area and care deeply about it.

There is more than one way to transmit power across the James River. Dominion has an opportunity to demonstrate corporate responsibility and pursue an alternative that meets the power needs in Virginia and saves the iconic landscape of the James River at Jamestown for future generations.

STEPHANIE S. MEEKS

ELIZABETH S. KOSTELNY

Washington

The writers are, respectively, president and chief executive of the National Trust for Historic Preservation; and chief executive of Preservation Virginia.